Difference between today and yesterday.

MrTennis-We did exactly what you propose many years ago: We recorded a flautist, a lute player a soprano and even a string quartet in one of our friends music room, recorded it on tape with a big professional Revox in stereo of course and then played it back through various rigs. I don't recall all the speakers, preamps and amps we compared the music with. It is too long ago. I remember Lowthers, the famous small BBC-Monitor, forgot what it was called and several others. There was GAS gear, Soundcraftsmen, original US Marantz, ML the man and a lot of European stuff. I only remember the gear, that came out in top to all our ears, because it was my rig:
Beveridge preamp, 2 Audio Research D-79s and stacked Quads, which I exchanged much later for quadrupled 63s, Sequerra ribbon speakers and Maggi bass panels.

Rodmann, I wholeheartedly agree with you. You can train your ears to become intimately familiar with the sound of live music - and singers voices for that matter. The capacity of our aural memory is stunning, were it not so, you would not be able to identify familiar voices over the telephone within a split second....and that is only the beginning. If you are sort of steeped in live music of what ever kind, you will within the space of listening to the first bar of a piece know at once if a system sounds right or not and after a few seconds be able to pinpoint quite accurately what is wrong. There are quite a number of afficionados amongst us, who taking live music as a reference, will be able to judge the sound of a system or of a single component under their scrutiny with a fairly high grade of objectivity. ( Not objectivity in the sense the natural sciences demand from us of course, but which the old Gestaltpsychology would probably be fairly happy with.)

Quite apart from that, I don't know if I'm right, but I have the faint suspicion that with the ongoing decline of sales of recorded classical music and the painfully slow progress of the digital medium both in soft- as well as hardware to render a truly satisfying experience of a big classical symphony, modern speakers are built to best render that kind of music, where digital excels in and likewise most CDs are sold or rather songs of that genre are downloaded. That would explain, why so many lovers of classical music seem to stick to analog and in the search of a "perfect" speaker often go back to the "old", hardly out of nostalgia, as has been proposed, but rather, simply put, because to many concert goers of classical music most modern non planar speakers, even those with the big names, simply don't sound "right".

There are some other variables which make things even more difficult to isolate in terms of deeming certain speakers more "accurate" or true to life, such as:

Hearing loss due to age or exposure to too many dB's
Engineering of the disc/album
Equipment used in Engineering
Synergy (or lack of it) between components

I have not seen it discussed much, but I would assert that certain people innately (not learned, not through experience) are able to identify natural/true to life sound more accurately than others. In the same way that some can run faster, think more lucidly, etc. so also I would suggest that some have the ability to hear and identify with uncanny accuracy that which sounds most gratifying and natural to most people.

I, of course, am one of them! ;)

Was it Duke Ellington who said
"If it sounds good, it is good".

Some truth there.
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Detlof- I've been bi-amping with planars for years(tubes/top and SS/bottom) with a pair of 10" drivers(Nestorovic's) in 8', tapered, damped transmission lines. They don't move enough air to fill a stadium, but have reproduced(with a healthy amount of realism/authority) the 16hz, 32ft stops of the Grand Ruffatti Organ on Crystal Clear's 'The Fox Touch'(Toccata and Fugue in D Minor)in my every listening room(thus far). When I built them, I did so to help my Acoustat Model III's(what I owned in 1980) keep from arcing, and to increase the dynamic range of the system. NO-I can't get the impact of a full philharmonic orchestra, BUT- The live club jazz, outdoor rock and music in church venues I've recorded are rendered quite well. Have you heard an album called 'Into the Labyrinth' by 'Dead Can Dance'? It was recorded in the Quivvy Church(Los Angeles). Wonderful ambiance, and guaranteed to give your entire sound system a healthy workout(huge drums/lots of percussion, and some very strange music). Vocals are to die for in that acoustic(some is a capella), and excellent engineering.

Douglas- I agree with the greatest part of what you said. Everyone is born with certain innate talents and abilities. Many things are/can be learned, however, such as being able to listen to individual instruments or voices in an otherwise busy acoustic for instance. My hearing(and sense of smell) has saved my life more than once, because I learned to sense what did and didn't belong in the then present environment. That's how deer avoid getting killed too. They are very familiar with their surroundings. Deer that are around humans a lot, never learn to fear them(not good if you're a deer). If you listen to live music all the time, your recognition of it will adjust to whatever is going on with your hearing. If I were to stop listening to live performances, and lost some high freq. sensitivity: I would at that point have to boost the treble to get what my memory said was missing. If I stay current(and focused) in my listening: What I hear in the live venue is still what I am looking for from my system. I'm certain(though I have protected my hearing as a valuable asset over the years) that I have sustained some loss(still test very good), BUT- I've still no problem telling the silkiness of Zildgian cymbals as opposed to the brassiness of Sabians(for instance). The bands I run sound for keep calling me back, because they get compliments on their sound they don't get otherwise. As I said in an earlier post: It's a matter of what you love(That's what you will stay consistant with). I can't help the engineering or equipment used in the recordings I purchase. I do know that my system is accurate based on my reference materials, and if what's being played is lacking in some area: I know it's the software, and not my hardware. I fully agree with The Duke(and Mrtennis): If it sounds good (to you), it is good. I always say, "If one person likes it- It's art" (whether I think it stinks or not)!